Editors & Agents Panel: Sonali Fry

Sonali Fry is VP & Publisher of Crown Books for Young Readers at Penguin Random House where she  acquires timeless, diverse children's books. She began her publishing career at Penguin, where she worked at Grosset & Dunlap in the managing editorial department. She then held editorial positions at Scholastic and Simon & Schuster. Prior to joining PRH in Spring 2019, she was Publisher of startup Little Bee Books, which she joined at inception and grew into three imprints. 

Sonali (she/her) focuses on board books and picture books.

Another part of her job is working with Little Tiger to craft their publishing program, with a focus on board books and picture books.

She loves working with new talent, finding new illustrators, collaborating with authors to come up with ideas, stories that are waiting to be told.

Changes in the industry

Sonali believes that post-pandemic, people have been reassessing what they want to do. Editors and publishers have been moving between houses; this can open up new opportunities for writers.

Because more publishers and agencies are more open to remote work, it increases the diversity of their workforce.

On Trends

Be wary of chasing trends. By the time the book comes out, the trend is probably going to be over.

Some trends do stick around longer, like sustainability. Some printing trends may or may not stick around, depending on the affordability.

Craft and Technique

Sonali does throw out ideas to agents and writers, will discuss the topic to find out how they approach it, asks the writer to write a synopsis. Sonali loves the collaborative process, the back-and-forth during the creative process.

She likes breaking the text into pages, which helps her figure out pacing and page turns.